Needless Burdens

 

I used to carry them as mindful burdens

weights which pressed against my back

Shackles on wrists and ankles

to impede my progress even drawing blood

 

They became a part of my daily slog

my inner feelings numbed by their heaviness

A once erect stature crippled itself

to become a shadow of my true identity

 

How much longer was I to endure those memories

from each dead weight and shackle a face would appear

I relived the agony, the guilt and embarrassment

needlessly reducing my life to a tormented shell

 

I sat up and regarded these chains of gloom

and began to loosen their fetters, leaving them behind

I stood upright and free with a lightened step

out of a self imposed darkness into the fullness of my liberty